White Lies - To Lose My Life

Their previous moniker referred to fear, but they went in a new, darker direction - and changed their name - to prove they weren't scaredy cats. Their new video is a voyage to the dark side dressed in black robes. Join us if you dare

White Lies used to be called Fear of Flying, but were reborn as White Lies because the phrase represented something "common but quite dark" and that, apparently, was how they saw themselves.

They weren't kidding, either. They have followed up the cheery-sounding single Death with the equally titularly upbeat To Lose My Life. And what better way to celebrate a new dark direction than to release an accompanying video that might as well be a children's book called In the Dark, or, even better, a round of Family Fortunes called Things That Are Dark. Yes! Let's see what's on the board ...

Night! Night is dark. A man wearing a hoodie in the dark, that's dark. Especially if it's a dark hoodie. That would get top marks on the Things That Are Dark board, I think. Ding ding ding!

A man sitting in a room full of dolls. Dork. If the survey had asked for "Things That Are Dork", it might have scored higher. But on the other hand, those dolls are a bit scary - so if we take "dark" in the sense of "scary", then yes, this is also dark. Ding!

In CCTV footage, we see a man repeatedly ringing a bell. Mysteriously, a shadow behind him seems to suggest that the Elephant Man is creeping up on him. The Elephant Man is a very bleak film. So if we take dark as also encompassing the idea of things being emotionally dark then, yes, the Elephant Man is a fine inclusion and ... yes, there it is, on the board. Ding Ding Ding ding!

In slow motion, a chair falls over. Clearly, someone has tripped over a chair - which, let's face it, is a very easy thing to do ... very easy, that is, when it is dark.

Cripes! These boys couldn't be any more dark if they were the Darkness themselves! (And the Darkness turned out to be quite a light band!) White Lies, though? Terribly dark. That name change has done the trick, darkly speaking, and no mistake. Ding!

At the bottom of a dark staircase (ding!) is a table. Right at the bottom of the stairs, mind. Which is a stupid place for a table. But at the table ...

... sits a man with matching bowls of haircut and soup. He sips tomato broth, opposite a man in a very silly outfit. Clearly, we are led to believe, he got dressed in the dark.

Or perhaps, given the symbols of gambling imprinted on his glasses, he represents a much darker darkness. The prince of darkness himself, perhaps! (DING!) Or maybe he's just an old man in a silly hat. It's so hard to tell these days.

The two-headed beast! That's definitely a symbol of great darkness. Or a symbol that you're watching Doctor Doolittle, of course. But we're not. It's much, much darker than that.

I mean, where else would you find a slathering two-headed animal, a murderous double-jawed beast with two enormous skulls, long shaggy fur of two different hues, and only four legs ... no, wait. Six? Eight! Only eight legs to carry the beast and ... oh, no, hang on, it's two wolves standing next to each other. Sorry.

As evidenced by one of them rolling about in his own. Still, being a large slavering wolf, that's quite dark on its own. And certainly a great deal more murky than ...

Two women doing their nails. I know a woman's beauty regime can be gruelling, but it's hardly the long dark night of the soul, is it?

Unlike the rest of the video, which is darker than the darkest night. And it is topped off with the image of a man shading his eyes against the retina-burning light. We look up, to see what he has been staring at, and it's right there. An image that looks very much like ...

Well, there we are. If it was a board on Family Fortunes, it would be the highest scoring round in the history of the Things That Are Dark. And befitting of a band with a decent dark name like White Lies. Not a silly light name like Fear of Flying! Only Nervous About Spiders could have been worse, right boys? Good work.